A Plan without a Plan
I got behind on my blogging, but my reasons will probably come clear in my next few posts!
Once we learned of the rising tension
, we made the decision to head north, working our way toward New Mexico. It was early afternoon and we had no idea where we would stop for the night, but we decided to just drive and see where we'd land.
Two roads lead north out of Uvalde, but I was the driver, not the navigator, so we ended up on Highway 83, which took us due north into Junction, instead of northwest into Sonora.
By the time we got to Junction, I was beat and feeling quite discouraged. Physical problems became an issue, too - our legs were beginning to swell from all the driving and car camping. (For those younger than we are, we didn't expect this to be an issue either!) But until we could get a new tent, our options are limited. We pulled into a truck stop, found a place to park overnight, and we settled in.
I woke to the gift of a hotel room for two nights - in San Angelo!
Wiping sleep from our eyes, we hit the road again.
We took two days off from traveling and sight-seeing. Our hotel room was one of those extended-stay suites, so I grabbed a few groceries from a nearby HEB, and we stayed in the room for every moment it was ours, keeping our feet propped up and doing much of nothing except sleeping. Tim got caught up on Andy Griffith episodes and game shows, and I got caught up on emails - almost.
I know there's a lesson in all of this. Even though we're not punching a time clock, we'd been working hard getting from one place to the next, pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones and staying on the move. We needed rest from all of it.
But after a nap or two, we were ready to hit the road again and explore.
San Angelo is known for murals around town, so we went in search of them.
One of my favorites - on the side of a hair salon, of course!
The mural below was so large, I had to divide it into several sections to take photos.
After chasing down all the murals, we turned on Waze to head toward El Dorado. But before we got out of town, we saw the "Best Burger" sign so we had to stop to check them out. The Lonestar Cheeseburger Company is a food truck that seems to have a permanent location. They've won some awards and offer a fun dining experience.
As regular readers of this LeapFrog journey have already discovered, Tim is a huge western fan, so our travels through the southwest focus on different movies and characters. When we left San Angelo, we headed for El Dorado - Tim still on a search for John Wayne.
But El Dorado the town was almost non-existent. We made a pit stop at a convenience store and asked the clerk about anything special in town that we should see. She told us, "Nothing. There's nothing here. What you see right here is it."
Tim was disappointed, but we drove around town anyway, and discovered a beautiful building.
On one corner of the courthouse property, we found this tribute and reminder:
God bless our veterans for protecting our "American way of life."
We're grateful.
I'll try to make up for my slow blogging over the next few days, so check back tomorrow for another post.
